Examine the factors responsible for the location of sugar industry around the world.

Sugar industry is a highly weight losing industry. Therefore manufacturing has to be done quickly after the crop is harvested from the field. Due to these facts, sugar industry is highly raw material oriented.

• The leading sugarcane producing countries in the world are also the leading producers of sugar. In all, there are more than 100 countries in the world producing sugar.
• While most of the cane sugar comes from the subtropical and tropical regions of the Southern Hemisphere, most of the beet sugar comes from the temperate zones of the Northern Hemisphere. The leading producers of cane sugar in the world include India, Brazil, China, Thailand, Mexico, Australia and Cuba. The leading producers of beet sugar include the European coun­tries and US. Chile, US, UK, France and Ukraine are the countries with the lowest costs of production of beet sugar in that order.
• The lowest costs of produc­tion of cane sugar are observed in countries like Zimbabwe, Brazil, Zambia, Malawi, Australia, South Africa, India and Thailand. The US and Mau­ritius have relatively higher costs of production of sugar from cane. The US produces sugar using both sources, sugar cane as well as sugar beet. Taking into account both sugar from cane and from sugar beet the leading producers rank as India, European Union (EU), Brazil, US, China, SADC (Southern African Development Community), Thailand, Mexico, Australia and Cuba.

The top 10 producers of sugar contribute about 74 per cent of the total sugar production in the world. The total production of sugar has been grow­ing continuously. While the production amounted to just above 50 million tonnes in 1960, it grew to about 100 million tonnes by 1985 and today the production is well over 125 million tonnes.

Topics: GS-I: Factors Responsible for the Location of Industries in Various Parts of World